My family, my community and my technology tools have influenced my learning experience. In my years of elementary school, I was exposed to old books, encyclopedias and many trips to places of interest such as museums, libraries and theaters. My parents used to take us to different types of social activities such as concerts, plays, conferences and sports. My parents were building my background knowledge, fact that help me make connections with the classroom material and the books I was using during my school years.

My college life was enriched with the use of technology. It was the beginning of the access of the Internet in the 90’s. The use of digital format encyclopedias and some multimedia resources were at that time, an excellent resource. The use of software such as Office Word and Power Point added an extra tool to share and store information with my peers.

Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?

Today, my learning network changes and grows everyday. The use of technology provides me with tools that help me learn in different areas of my life. In my mind map, I present areas in which I am learning every day, personal life, my family, my career, professional development and my gadgets or hobbies.

In my personal life, I learn with the use of my computer and my IPhone. The use of social networks such as Facebook, Skype and Oovoo provides my tools to exchange ideas with teachers in other places and cooperate in different learning and teaching efforts. I stay updated in all the technological changes through news websites and IPhone apps. The use of Netflix provides movies from were I also learn from.

As a teacher, I need to be at the pace of the latest technologies. Web 2.0 tools give me tools to guide and enrich my learning process. The use of search engines and video collection not only provides me tools to enrich my lessons, also answers many questions.

My professional development is totally connected to technology. Studying online, sharing blogs, and the use of Google Educator tools, moves me into a level of sharing online with other professionals and teachers and share my ideas.

My newest learning tool is my IPad, everyday I learn something new and it facilitates my learning process to another level. First and the reason I bought it was to have access to my Walden Class everywhere and anytime. I can read my peers comments and participation in the discussion blog and have access to the articles for every week. I use and app, named Good Reader to keep all my articles in PDF format, and be able to read it and study “on the go”. I have access to dictionaries, and any website needed in my studies. I have my favorites magazines to read, ICreate brings technology tutorials that I read every month and teaches me all the tips and tricks for apple computers. Also, I have access to videos and podcast that I use to learn. Using the Google app, I can easily share ideas from the computer to my IPad. My IPad has Keynote and Pages apps, that are the equivalent to Word and Power Poing. I can connect my IPad to my projector and share my ideas and learning sites with my students.

How do you gain new knowledge when you have questions?

These days finding answers to my questions are easier. Making an online search could bring almost an answer for every question I have. The use of effective technology helps my answers my question and answer some for my students.

In what ways does your personal learning network support or refute the central tenets of connectivism?

My learning network supports the central principles of connectivism. Some of these principals are:

·Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions

·Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

·Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

·Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

·Decision-making is itself a learning process.

In conclusion, Connectivism gives us the opportunity to share, search and use different technologies to add more information to a concept that we are learning about. These days, we can decide what to learn about and with the easy use of technology we can almost about any topic. The information is been updated every minute and the use and benefit of the Internet bring us the world wide news and information actual and at a click distance. As an adult we need to have goals, commitment and motivation, after those factors you are ready to turn on your computer and start learning to help others learn in the future.

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About Me

Hi,
I'm married, mom of 4 wonderful kids. I currently work as an ESOL teacher and Technology Coordinator in an Elementary School at Maryland. I provide trainings for teachers in our school area in the integration of technology in the classroom. I work with Apple computers, Interactive Boards and Response Systems (clickers).
This is my first experience with Blogs. I feel that it will be a great experience for me to improve on my language skills being English my second language.
Please feel free to make comments and suggestions. I hope we can all grow in this learning experience.